Indian banks' bad loans may rise to 8.5% by March 2017, RBI warns

Mumbai

GROSS bad loans at Indian banks may rise to 8.5 per cent of total assets by March 2017 from 7.6 per cent in March 2016 if the central bank orders them to conduct a second round of asset quality reviews, a Reserve Bank of India (RBI) report said on Tuesday.

Under a "severe stress" situation, total bad loans could rise to 9.3 per cent in March 2017, the RBI said in its semi-annual Financial Stability Report.